GPU (I believe) keeps crashing my system

chippu · September 5, 2020

I had an older pc my Grandpa built me, it had 4gb of RAM, and about 370w PSU. It was an older pc, but I bought an RX 550 to put in it.

Ever since I put that card in it, randomly my screen would flash to a random color, audio would repeat and I would be forced to restart my PC. I never found out what the problem was. The motherboard was some old Asus one (I don't know the model) and the processor was some old AMD one (I also don't know what one it was).

Recently my Dad gave me his office pc, it had a better processor (An intel i3-3200) and I found an PSU in my basement (A Corsair CX430). The office PC was a Dell Optiplex 7010, and so I put my RX 550 into it. For a while I didn't actually put the GPU in to see if that PC also crashed, and it NEVER did. But right after putting my RX 550 into it, it began doing the freezing/crashing.

I've checked the BIOS and it doesn't seem to tell me it needs updating, and i've checked PCPartPicker, and 430 watts is definetly enough. I even tried going into the AMD software and increasing the amount of power the card can draw as well as fan speeds.

The strangest thing is it only crashes while either browsing the web or playing very little demanding games like Binding of Isaac, but when playing GPU intensive games like DOOM or Resident Evil 2 I have not had one crash.

HanZie82 · September 5, 2020

430Watts might be enough. But how sure are you that the PSU you're using delivers that? And 'clean' enough to be of use?
That PSU the Corsair CX430 is in the PSU tier list in tier D, which as stated there is enough for iGPU use. And you're using a dedicated GPU.

My advice is get a PSU that can power your system. 500Watts should be enough but i would highly recommend anything Tier C or higher.

chippu · September 5, 2020

1 minute ago, HanZie82 said:

430Watts might be enough. But how sure are you that the PSU you're using delivers that? And 'clean' enough to be of use?
That PSU the Corsair CX430 is in the PSU tier list in tier D, which as stated there is enough for iGPU use. And you're using a dedicated GPU.

My advice is get a PSU that can power your system. 500Watts should be enough but i would highly recommend anything Tier C or higher.

Ah, alright. I'm building a new pc soon anyway, but thought after discovering this sight i'd ask, as I do still need a month or so before I purchase my new build, and if I can stop this crashing that'd be nice. Well at least I have an answer on why it crashes, though there isn't really anything I can do about it at the moment.